1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a health management support method and system in support of the implementation of health management schemes which are effective for preventing diseases and maintaining health and a method and system for generating healthy life expectancy prediction data.
2. Description of Related Art
To give an example of previous approaches to such health management support, there is a program described in the paper “Program for Supporting Living Habit Improvement Based on the Existing Remote Medical Healthcare Services” (in the collected papers to the 20th Academic Meeting of Medical Informatics Association, pp. 644-645). This paper discusses living habit improvement and guidance services for local inhabitants. The program is intended for rendering health management guidance to its participants for improving their daily living habits such as meals, exercise, and to quit smoking in order to prevent life-style related diseases such as diabetes, hyperlipemia, and hypertension. The service operators guide the participants in their living habits and know how well they follow some advice as guidance by communicating with them through their terminals. The service operators also hold a meeting for group guidance (conducting a workshop on health) to advise the participants on healthcare matters as the guidance for life-style improvement.
In the above previous approach example, comprehensive indexes of personal health conditions are not considered adequately. Therefore, the approach has the following problems: daily health conditions of the participants cannot be grasped quantitatively; there do not exist quantitative indexes of the effects of the particulars of advice as healthcare guidance or a practical method of index calculation does not exist; and it is difficult to make evaluation and optimization based on the particulars of the advice as healthcare guidance.
The above previous approach has another problem. All participants receive guidance, according to the same guidance plan at the workshop on health. However, the guidance about health problems and improvements and the effect thereof would differ for each participant individual. Adequate consideration is not given to a method for developing and providing a life-style improvement plan optimized for each individual of the participants.
The above previous approach has a further problem. Adequate consideration is not given to presenting the information about the effect of practice following life-style improvement guidance to the participants in a form that could boost the participants' will to prevent diseases and pay attention to their own health and life.